But the movie doesn’t necessarily stick the landing as far as: This is an amazing story.
I thought it was the ideal movie to remake.
Begos' pitch was rejected because it strayed too far from the plot of the 1984 film.
‘Violent Night,’ ‘The Mean One,’ ‘Christmas, Bloody, Christmas’.Universal; Sleight of Hand Productions; Josh Ethier/RLJE Films
“I’mthe f—ing fanbase, so I didn’t really buy that.
Begos cast Riley Dandy and Sam Delich as the record store employees andERactor Abraham Benrubi as the robot Santa.
“Suddenly, Abe struck me.
‘Christmas Bloody Christmas’.Josh Ethier/RLJE Films
He’s got that big character actor face with the big eyebrows.
Is he really going to want to be onscreen, covered up, not saying anything for eight weeks?
I pitched it to him and he was so onboard.
‘Violent Night’.Allen Fraser/Universal
He was like, ‘F—, yeah!'”
Fortunately 87North, the film’s distributor Universal, and the movie’s director Tommy Wirkola all agreed.
And they were like, that’s one too far guys.”
Sleight of Hand Productions
Miller and Casey wrote the script for the film with David Harbour in mind to portray their Santa-with-attitude.
We were like, Yeah, that’s what Santa’s like."
“David is unbelievable,” says LaMorte.
I knew we had something special."
LaMorte argues that watching Santa murder people is just a different way to celebrate the season.
“‘Wait, you’re writing a Christmas movie, what’s yours about?’
‘Wait, when’s yours coming out?
What the f—?'”
“It was like, no you didn’t, you saw the trailer forViolent Night.
Maybe people will watch my movie because they think they’re watching a David Harbour movie.
They ain’t benefiting for me, that’s for sure, but I’ll benefit from them!”
Violent Nightis now in theaters.The Mean OneandChristmas Bloody Christmasarrive Friday, with the latter movie also available onShudder.
See the trailers for all three films below.
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